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Subject: Re: CA monitors...Update #2
From: "Garrett D. Rinehart" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:06:47 -0600 (CST)
> Grasping at straws, I started killing MEDM displays on the control workstations. One of them 
> was an XY plot of beam profiles (~75 channels total @ 30Hz rate). Turning that 
> display on and off had almost the same effect on the stalling problem (turned 
> on, big problem; turned off, almost no problem).

I still have no explanation, but have found what appears to be a fix (or at least a 
work-around). 

Let's review for clarity: iocA gathers lots of data which iocB gets via CA in a subroutine 
record to display on DROs. That same data can be displayed on an OPI via MEDM, but hangs as 
often as iocB's DROs. To further complicate the problem, there is an even more remote iocC 
which gathers beam profile data and sends waveforms back to the OPI for an XY plot display. All 
the iocs were on thinnet (10base-2, if you prefer) and were connected via an adapter box to a 
10/100base-T hub. The OPIs and are connected to the hub. Oh and iocA, C, and two others are on 
the other side of a fiber-optic network bridge.

This morning, I pulled iocB off the thinnet and gave it a port on the 10base-T hub. The problem 
all but vanished. I tried other combinations (putting iocB back on thinnet with a different 
connector box, and separating leg with iocA, C, and two others (the fiber bridge) and putting 
it into the hub directly) trying to understand what was happening, but iocB being on the hub by 
itself seemed to be the only thing that really mattered.

The way it was, data from iocA to iocB appeared to get delayed by data from iocC to the OPI. 
That kind of made sense since data from C to the hub and OPI had to physically pass iocA and B 
on the network. Just moving iocB to the hub means that now the data from A to B has to take 
exactly the same route except for going one step further by going into and out of the hub. A 
and C still share the fiber bridge, cable from the bridge to the adapter, adapter, and hub 
port. Why doe that work better? My thought was that the problem was actually with the 
transceiver on iocB, but a different one did the same thing. Cable? All the data still goes 
through it, the "T" just isn't connected to anything any more? Bad "T"? Possible, but not 
likely since the other legs of it are fine and, keep in mind, the sniffer never did see any 
problems with the network. Bad cables tend to show up pretty readily.

So, any ideas? Anybody?

Thanks everybody for your help.
 
Garrett Rinehart
Intense Pulsed Neutron Source
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 S. Cass Ave
Argonne, IL  60439
(630)252-6561

PS: John, I see your point about Peregrine's heartbeat, but I'm seeing the same problem with 
floating point numbers that change constantly. 







Replies:
RE: CA monitors...Update #2 Jeff Hill

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